Internet Speed vs Download/Upload Speed (4 posts)

Eiren Member

I've recently upgraded to FIOS 35MB/35MB from 25/15 speed. I'm using Fetch 5.5.3 on Mac OS 10.6.2. Even with that kind of speed, I'm only getting around 230KB/s for download, same as what I've getting before the upgrade. So I did some speed tests and it showed the download speed to be 35+MB most of the time. I've also tried Transmit and the result was pretty much the same.

Scott McGuire Administrator

Hi,

When you're uploading to another computer with an FTP client, the speed of your Internet connection isn't the only factor that controls how fast uploads and downloads occur.

The download speeds are also affected by the speed of the server's Internet connection, how much priority the server gives to FTP connections, and how busy the server is. Fetch tries to transfer data as fast as your Internet connection allows, but these other factors may result in slower than the maximum possible speed.

My guess is the server you're downloading from has a much slower connection speed than you do (remember that when you're downloading from a server, it is in effect uploading to you, and upload speeds are often slower than download speeds), or it may be artificially limiting how fast data can be downloaded from it.

Speed tests use specialized computers that have very high speed connections and are designed to transfer data as fast as possible specifically to you, in order to tell you the maximum speed you'd see if every other computer also had very high speed connections and gave you high priority. But in reality, most other computers do not transfer data as fast as the speed test computers and are trying to provide equal quality service to many users at the same time; the server you are downloading from is a different computer, and on a different Internet connection, than the speed test computers.

Probably the only way to get a faster download speed is to switch to a different FTP server, if possible, or talk to the people who run the server and ask what sort of download speeds you should expect from it to see if the speeds you are seeing are normal for that server.

Eiren Member

Hi Scott,

Thank you very much for your prompt advice. I know for sure that the remote server has a faster connection than mine. Maybe because I am in Los Angeles and the remote server is in Tokyo and the distance is the cause of such limitation? I'll check with their admin about priority setting and hopefully figure out a way to improve the speed.

Scott McGuire Administrator

Hi,

You're welcome. You being in Los Angeles and the server in Tokyo could have something to do with the slow speeds; your connection to them goes through intermediary connections, and perhaps one of those intermediary connections is slow (given that the servers on are different continents, that doesn't seem entirely unlikely), meaning that the transfer would be slow even though both ends are fast.